skina is the Swedish verb "to shine," the verb you need for sunshine, polished metal, and a beaming face. It is an i–e–i strong verb, with principal parts skina – skiner – sken – skinit, the same vowel pattern as skriva – skrev – skrivit. Two things deserve attention from the start: skina is intransitive (the sun shines on its own), and the spelling sk- before i is pronounced as the soft sje-sound (like sh but further back), not as a hard /sk/.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Preteritum (past) | Supine | Imperative | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| skina | skiner | sken | skinit | skin | Group 4 (strong), i–e–i |
Read the vowels across the row: i in the infinitive and present (skina, skiner), down to e in the past (sken), back to i in the supine (skinit). The past sken is the form learners forget — a bare vowel-changed stem with no ending, rhyming with ren (clean). The supine is skinit, so the perfect is har skinit. skina has no everyday agreeing participle; the living adjective from this verb is the present participle skinande "shining."
Solen skiner äntligen efter en hel vecka av regn.
The sun is finally shining after a whole week of rain. skiner — present, vowel i.
Månen sken klart över sjön.
The moon shone brightly over the lake. sken — past, vowel e.
Det har inte skinit en enda dag den här veckan.
It hasn't shone a single day this week. har skinit — perfect, supine i.
Use 1: present, past and perfect
The three tenses follow the principal parts. The present skiner covers both "shines" and "is shining." The past is the bare stem sken. The perfect is har skinit, the pluperfect hade skinit.
Hennes ögon skiner när hon pratar om sitt arbete.
Her eyes shine when she talks about her work. Present skiner — figurative.
Stjärnorna sken starkt på den molnfria himlen.
The stars shone brightly in the cloudless sky. sken — simple past.
Solen hade skinit hela förmiddagen innan ovädret kom.
The sun had shone all morning before the storm came. hade skinit — pluperfect.
Use 2: the weather / impersonal heart — Solen skiner
The default subject of skina is solen "the sun." Where English can say "the sun is out" or "it's sunny," Swedish most naturally says solen skiner. The verb is firmly intransitive: the sun, the moon, a lamp, polished shoes — they all shine of their own accord, and you never skina something. To make something shine you polish it (putsa) or let it gleam (få något att glänsa).
Solen sken från en klarblå himmel hela dagen.
The sun shone from a clear blue sky all day. sken — the classic weather use.
Lyktorna skiner varmt längs gågatan på kvällen.
The lamps shine warmly along the pedestrian street in the evening. Intransitive subject lyktorna.
Hans skor sken som speglar efter putsningen.
His shoes shone like mirrors after the polishing. The shoes shine on their own — you putsa (polish) them.
Use 3: skina igenom and skinande
The particle verb skina igenom means "shine through," literally and figuratively — light shines through a curtain, or someone's true feelings shine through. And the present participle skinande ("shining, gleaming") is a workhorse adjective, often intensifying: skinande ren "spotlessly clean," skinande vit "gleaming white."
Hennes besvikelse sken igenom trots det artiga leendet.
Her disappointment shone through despite the polite smile. skina igenom = shine through.
Köket var skinande rent när vi kom hem.
The kitchen was spotlessly clean when we got home. skinande rent — intensifying participle.
Ett skinande nytt tak glänste på ladan.
A gleaming new roof shone on the barn. skinande as an adjective.
A note on pronunciation: the sje-sound
The cluster sk- before the front vowels e, i, y, ä, ö is pronounced as the sje-sound — a soft, breathy sound roughly between English sh and h, made at the back. So skina, skiner, sken, skinit all begin with that soft sound, not the hard /sk/ of skog (forest) or skola (school), where sk sits before back vowels. This is why skina (shine) and skena (rail/bolt) both have the soft onset, while skala (peel) has the hard one.
Säg skiner med ett mjukt sje-ljud, inte som i skola.
Say 'skiner' with a soft sje-sound, not like in 'skola'. Pronunciation reminder.
Use 4: skina vs lysa vs glänsa
Swedish carves up "shine" more finely than English. skina is the light a source gives off (the sun, the moon, a star). lysa is "to give light, to be lit / glow" — a lamp lyser, a window lyser when the light is on inside, and figuratively someone can lysa av lycka "glow with happiness." glänsa is "to gleam, glisten" — the reflective shine of polished metal, wet asphalt, or a brilliant performance (en glänsande insats). As a rough guide: skina radiates, lysa illuminates, glänsa reflects.
Solen skiner, lampan lyser och bilen glänser i solskenet.
The sun shines, the lamp glows, and the car gleams in the sunlight. skina vs lysa vs glänsa in one breath.
Hela huset lyste när vi kom hem på kvällen.
The whole house was lit up when we got home in the evening. lysa — to be lit / glow.
Hennes ögon glänste av tårar.
Her eyes glistened with tears. glänsa — the reflective, glistening shine.
Common Mistakes
❌ Solen skinade hela dagen.
Incorrect — skina is strong and takes no -ade ending. The past is the vowel-changed sken.
✅ Solen sken hela dagen.
The sun shone all day.
❌ Det har sken hela veckan.
Incorrect — after har you need the supine skinit, not the past sken.
✅ Det har skinit hela veckan.
It's been sunny all week.
❌ Jag skiner mina skor varje söndag.
Wrong verb — skina is intransitive, you can't 'shine' your shoes with it. To polish them, use putsa.
✅ Jag putsar mina skor varje söndag.
I polish my shoes every Sunday.
❌ Köket var skinit rent.
Wrong form — the adjective is the present participle skinande, not the supine skinit.
✅ Köket var skinande rent.
The kitchen was spotlessly clean.
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Start learning Swedish→Related Topics
- Index of Strong Verbs by PatternB1 — A navigable index of the common Swedish strong verbs, grouped by ablaut pattern rather than alphabetically — i–e–i (skriva/skrev/skrivit), i–a–u (dricka/drack/druckit), a–o–a (ta/tog/tagit), and the irregular/contracted set (gå/gick/gått). Each group is a four-part table of principal parts with English cognate hints, because organising strong verbs by shared vowel pattern turns a scary list into a few learnable families.
- Strong Pattern: i – e – i (skriva, bita)B1 — The cleanest strong class: infinitive i, past e, supine back to i — skriva/skrev/skrivit, bita/bet/bitit, gripa/grep/gripit, stiga/steg/stigit, rida/red/ridit, skina/sken/skinit. This is the same family as English write/wrote/written and bite/bit/bitten, so the cognate intuition transfers with only a vowel adjustment. The trap is regularising (*skrivade) or using the wrong supine vowel.
- Impersonal and Weather Verbs (det regnar)A2 — When there's no real subject — the weather, the time, a general state — Swedish props the sentence up with a dummy 'det': Det regnar ('it's raining'), Det är kallt ('it's cold'), Det är roligt att resa ('it's fun to travel'). Like English 'it', this 'det' means nothing; it just fills the subject slot. Don't confuse it with existential 'det finns', which actually introduces something.